


Little, Broken (Still Good)

by ttamarrindo



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Babysitter!Brian, Domestic, Kid!Dowoon, M/M, Single Parent!Jae, Single Parents, and brian, honestly this is just jae being soft for his son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 01:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11544354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ttamarrindo/pseuds/ttamarrindo
Summary: “Dowoon,” Jae sighs, grits his teeth in an effort not to crack and start screaming out of sheer frustration. “Get in the tub.”“No,” the four-year-old shoots back, stomping down a foot and crossing his arms over his chest in a move he definitelydid notpick up from him, no matter how many times Brian may insist otherwise. “Don’t wanna.”(Or, the one where Jae is a struggling single dad and Brian is there to save the day.)





	Little, Broken (Still Good)

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive my very lame Lilo & Stitch reference I will just leave this here, enjoy. 
> 
> For jazz, whom I thought I couldn't love more than I already did<3

“Dowoon,” Jae sighs, grits his teeth in an effort not to crack and start screaming out of sheer frustration. “Get in the tub.”

“No,” the four-year-old shoots back, stomping down a foot and crossing his arms over his chest in a move he definitely _did not_ pick up from him, no matter how many times Brian may insist otherwise. “Don’t wanna.”

“Dowoonie,” Jae pleads, crouching down next to his son in the bathroom floor and lifting the boy’s chin up so he can look into his eyes. They’re big and wide, just this side of watery, and Jae can feel his resolve starting to crumble under the sight of them. Much as he wants to though, Jae just can’t miss this meeting. So he takes in a deep breath and forces himself to act like the responsible father he hopes he can become one day.

“Please, baby. Just a quick bath before I go, okay?” he asks, sees Dowoon’s lower lip wobble at his words. “Don’t you wanna be ready when Brian comes over?”

“No!” Dowoon shouts before he rips himself away from Jae’s hold and stumbles out of the bathroom in a dash.

For what feels like the hundredth time that day, Jae finds himself sighing, slumping down against the bathroom’s wall. Maybe mentioning Brian had been a mistake. Much as Dowoon loves his babysitter, he has been seeing too much of the younger man lately. Jae sighs again, feels guilt claw at his stomach at the mere thought of it. 

He knows he’s been absent lately, doing extra hours and working weekends just to finish that goddamn presentation on time. Jae hates it, absolutely despises the fact that he can’t remember the last time he had breakfast with his own son, never mind that last time he spend a few hours playing with him. All those lates nights he had to pull, forcing him to come home when Dowoon was already tucked into bed with Brian laying next to him, it all bears heavy down on him, threatens to swallow Jae up.

But it all ends tonight, Jae reminds himself, with the big presentation for the board of directors and that seal of approval he has been dreaming of for almost a month now. Taking comfort in the thought, Jae huffs once and forces himself to his feet, going in search of Dowoon. 

After swallowing his pride and agreeing to play horse for him tomorrow, Jae manages to coax his son into the bathroom again. He does a quick job of scrubbing him down before he fits Dowoon into his favorite pair of pajamas - the blue, dog-paw patterned ones - and plops him down in between his legs so Jae can dry his hair with a towel. He leaves Dowoon sitting on the living room couch, some kids cartoon playing on the tv, and goes to change into his suit, making sure he looks presentable enough. 

Jae is in the middle of struggling to get his tie right when their doorbell rings. He stops, giving up on the piece of clothing and makes his way to the door instead, ruffling Dowoon’s hair when he passes him by in hopes placating the boy. 

“Hi, hyung,” Brian greets him with a smile when Jae opens the door for him. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine,” Jae shrugs, motioning for him to come inside the apartment. Honestly, Jae doesn’t think he could ever get mad at Brian. The younger man is a godsend, or well, as much of one as he can be when it was Sungjin who send him Jae’s way after he got tired of Jae using him as his personal babysitter.

“Class ran late so I missed my bus,” Brian explains, kicking off his shoes and setting them down by the entrance hallway. “Had to wait for the next one.”

“It’s fine, seriously don’t worry,” Jae replies as he shoots him a small smile. Jae knows it’s hard, juggling a part-time job when you’re working towards your master’s degree like Brian is, and he certainly doesn’t hold it against the younger man. So he just smiles at him and leads him towards the living room, where Dowoon is strategically crouched behind the couch’s armrest so that only his head peeks out.

“Dowoonie,” Jae starts, silently pleading with his son to behave. “Brian’s here, love. He’s gonna watch you for a bit while I’m gone, okay?”

Dowoon watches Brian carefully for a moment, looks between him and Jae for a second that seems to drag on too long before he sighs and plops down on the couch with a mighty huff. Brian raises an eyebrow up at him, not used to such a cold treatment from the four-year-old, who is usually beyond elated to see him.

“He’s not too happy with me at the moment,” Jae answers the implied question, fighting off another wave of guilt.

“I see,” Brian answers, squeezing Jae's arm once before carefully drawing closer to Dowoon, who lets him take a seat beside him, surprisingly enough. 

“Hey, Dowoonie,” Brian says, motioning to a piece of paper that lays on the coffee table in front of the couch, surrounded by Dowoon’s dozens of crayons. “What do you have there?”

“Nothing,” Dowoon answers, hurrying to hide the sheet of paper under a couch pillow. “It’s a secret,” he explains, trying to whisper and not even making it halfway.

“Really? Won’t you let me see?” Brian asks, chuckling quietly. Dowoon seems to ponder something for a moment, shoots Jae a suspicious look, before he nods once and reaches for the paper again.

Jae watches them for a moment, drinking in the familiar sight of his son talking animatedly with Brian until he’s sure the younger man has everything under control and he goes to his room again, making sure he has everything he needs for his presentation.

“Okay, baby, I’m heading out now,” Jae calls out a few moments later, has to fight off a smile at the way the both Brian and Dowoon look up at the sound of his voice. 

“Appa,” Dowoon mumbles, reaching out towards him. Jae grins helplessly and takes him in arms, brushing a few strands of dark hair away from Dowoon’s forehead to plant a soft kiss on his temple. 

“I’ll be back before you notice, okay?” he promises.

“I always notice when you’re gone, appa,” Dowoon answers into his neck and something in Jae’s chest tightens at the words, makes him think that maybe he didn’t fuck the kid up as much as he feared when Dowoon clings to him just that little bit tighter. 

“Hush, baby. It’s only for a few hours, I promise,” Jae murmurs before he blows a raspberry against his son’s neck that has Dowoon shrieking in laughter and he sets him down gently on the couch. 

“Brian,” he says, startling the younger man from where he had been staring at them both with a fond look on his face. “Come here for a bit, will you?”

Brian nods, stands up and follows Jae into the kitchen, where Jae hands him a slip of paper. 

“This is the number of the place where the meeting is taking place,” he explains, tapping a finger over it. “For any emergencies. I know you already have my cellphone but better be safe than sorry. Also, Dowoon already had dinner but there’s some food in the fridge if you get hungry.” 

“Please makes sure he goes to bed early, okay?” Jae asks. “I don’t want him to wait up for me, he tried that last time and he ended up crying when I wouldn’t come back and I really can’t see that again, so please-”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Brian cuts into his rambling, smiles at him reassuringly in a way that has Jae’s jaw snapping shut with a click. “We’ll be fine hyung and I’ll make sure to text now and then to keep you updated.”

“Right,” Jae answers, smiles back and hopes that it doesn’t look half as nervous as he feels. “Well, I should get going then,” he says, makes to turn on his heel and head for the door when Brian’s hand comes down to wrap around his wrist and pulls him back.

“Wait, hyung. Your tie,” Brian says before he reaches out to tighten the knot of Jae’s tie, fingers working deftly against Jae’s adam’s apple.

“Thank you,” Jae forces himself to say when Brian’s done, pretends he isn’t blushing as he leans down to grab his briefcase and heads for the door.

Just when he’s about to shut the door to his apartment, a sudden thought comes to him and he turns to look back at Brian. “Wait, just - if you think Dowoonie’s about to have a tantrum or something, play Chicken Little on the tv. Wonpil came over a few day ago and got it into my son’s head that I look like the main character. It helps calm him down somehow.”

“Chicken Little, got it,” Brian answers, grins at him like he’s doing his best not to break out laughing and then says, “go, hyung. We’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’m going now,” Jae says and this time he actually manages to follow through with it, shutting the door behind him and fighting down the urge to run back home.

*

As expected, the meeting makes Jae want to tear his hair out in sheer frustration. 

The board of directions is, frankly speaking, a bunch of old men in suits who feel like playing at bureaucracy and fucking everyone around just for the hell of it. Jae has to watch them nitpick and bicker for hours, digging his nails into his palms to keep himself from running his mouth off.

Halfway into the presentation Jae calls for a break because he knows that if he doesn’t he’ll probably snap at one of them and throw all those hours of hard work out of the window and directly into the trash.

He all but stumbles out of the conference room, walks a few paces down the hallway and then settles against a wall, taking out his phone and dialing Brian’s cell before he even thinks about what he’s doing.

“Brian,” he breathes into the phone as soon as he hears the other line pick up. “How’s- how’s everything going?”

“We’re fine hyung, honestly don’t worry so much,” Brian says, and Jae can picture him rolling his eyes almost perfectly. “Do you want to talk to him?” he asks after a moment.

“Yes, I do. But it’s better if I don’t,” Jae answers because he knows it will only make things worse for Dowoon to hear his voice right now. Not to mention that Jae isn’t sure if he would be able to keep himself from running straight back home if he heard his son, not when hearing Brian’s voice is already making it this difficult. “Just - just tell me what he’s doing, please.”  
“We’re watching Chicken Little actually,” Brian hums, “and let me tell you hyung, Wonpil was right. You _do_ look a bit like him.” 

“Smartass,” Jae huffs, but he lets Brian go on talking. And slowly, bit by bit, the picture starts to paint itself inside Jae’s mind. He can see Brian and Dowoon cuddled up together on the worn leather couch, the younger man with his feet propped up in the coffee table in the way he knows Jae hates; Dowoon clutching at Brian’s hand like he always does when he’s focused on something. The thought of them is enough to have a bit of the tension coiling tight around Jae’s shoulder easing, if only for a moment.

“You still there hyung?” Brian asks after a few moments when all that the comes from his side of the line is silence. 

“Yeah, sorry,” Jae coughs, thankful for the fact that Brian can’t see him blushing. “And thank you, for everything.”

“C’mon hyung, you know I love the little brat,” Brian says, and Jae thinks he hears Dowoon grumbling something in the background before Brian chuckles and tells him, “I gotta go now, apparently the sky is about to start falling.”

“Right, see you in a few hours,” Jae says, already thinking of a way to get this meeting moving faster.

Brian hums, sounding more and more distracted as the sounds from the tv start to get louder. “Yeah, come back home soon, hyung. We’re waiting for you,” he says and then the calls clicks off.

Jae takes in a breath, thinks of home and of Brian and his son and then heads inside the meeting room again, determined to get this over as soon as possible.

*

Jae slumps down as soon as he’s past the threshold of his apartment, setting his briefcase against the wall and kicking his shoes off before he stumbles into the living room. There, he finds Brian staring intently at his phone, all the lights off apart from that of his screen.

“You’re gonna be blind when you’re my age if you keep that up,” Jae calls out softly as he turns on the overhead lights, mindful of the closed door of Dowoon’s bedroom, where he knows the boy must be sleeping.

Brian turns to look at him, squints under the sudden brightness of the room before he grins and stretches out. “You’re not that old, hyung,” he says, grins even brighter when Jae scoffs at him. “How did the meeting go?”

“Fine,” Jae grunts out, settling down besides Brian. The younger man turns to look at him, raising an eyebrow up to his hairline, prodding silently. “They passed my project, surprisingly enough,” Jae relents.

“That’s great hyung,” Brian beams. “That means no more late nights for you, right?”

“Yes,” Jae agrees, smiles at the thought before he stands up and cracks his joint. “Can you wait for a bit for me to take you home? I wanna check on Dowoon first.”

“Sure,” Brian says easily enough, but there’s something in his eyes that wasn’t there before, disappointment maybe. Like he was hoping for Jae to say something else.

Jae doesn’t let himself dwell on it. Instead he cracks the door to Dowoon’s room open and lets himself in, taking a seat on the edge of the boy’s bed.

“Hi, baby,” he whispers, stroking his fingers softly through Dowoon’s hair as he talks and feeling himself relax the longer he just looks at his son. “I’m sorry I haven’t been home much lately,” he begins, finds that admitting things like this it’s easier in the dark. “I know you’ve been lonely, I know. But that’s over now,” Jae says, even when he knows Dowoon’s already fast asleep. “I’m going to take better care of you now, love. Promise.”

Dowoon stirs at that, blinks awake at the sound of his voice. “Appa,” he murmurs, stretching out to reach him. “Appa, don’t be sad,” he says and it’s only then that Jae realizes how he must look, making promises he doesn’t know if he'll be able to keep.

“I’m not, baby,” Jae says, but all Dowoon does is shake his head stubbornly and sit up to ruffle around inside his bedside drawer.

“You are,” Dowoon says, clutching tightly at something - a sheet of paper, Jae realises - before he places it in Jae’s hands and goes on, “I notice, appa. But it’s okay, it’s okay cause I made this for you so that you won’t be sad anymore.”

Jae looks down, smooths the paper down to see a crude drawing of three people. There’s him, Jae recognizes his glasses even when drawn in Dowoon’s shaky lines, and there’s also Dowoon himself, much more bigger than he should be and clinging to Jae’s hands and there’s also-

“Brian hyung is here too,” Dowoon says, points to the bundles of sticks that’s holding Dowoon’s other hand. “Because he’s really nice and he makes me happy like you do, appa. And I think he makes you happy too.”

“It’s lovely, baby,” Jae chokes out when Dowoon turns to him for his opinion, pulls Dowoon in closer to him and rests his chin on top of his son’s head. “I love it, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Dowoon mumbles back, already yawning away. “Just don’t be sad anymore, appa.” 

“I won’t, love,” Jae answers, stays with Dowoon until he feels his son’s breathing even out and deepen into the telltale rise and fall of sleep. Then he disentangles carefully himself and lays Dowoon against his pillow, shuts the door behind himself as he walks back into the living room.

“Everything okay?” Brian asks from where he’s standing by the hallway. Jae swallows, tightens his hands around the drawing and forces himself to answer. 

“Yeah, everything's fine,” he says because things _are_ fine. Still, Jae thinks, maybe they could be better. “C’mon, it’s getting late and I should take you home.”

And there’s that something in Brian’s eyes. Disappointment, longing maybe, but it’s definitely enough to have Jae saying, “but maybe, if you’d liked to of course, I can pick you up tomorrow and we could, uh, spend the day together.” Jae winces, knows that sounded nothing like what he had planned in his head, but Brian is staring at him, wide-eyed and hopeful.

“All three of us?” he asks, smiling softly, tentatively, that look finally gone from his eyes .

“Yeah,” Jae answers, thinks back to the drawing he’s holding on his right hand, back to the way Brian had looked with Dowoon sitting on his lap. “All three of us.” 

And this time, it’s a promise Jae intends to keep.

**Author's Note:**

> Do tell me what you thought! I think I like the idea of Dad!Jae a little bit too much tbh, so much potential in this one as well.
> 
> Also, be proud of me guys, two fics in one day! Bless the holidays.
> 
> As always, find me on [tumblr](https://jahehyung.tumblr.com/) / [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/ttamarrindo) <3


End file.
